Murphy open to minor concessions on background checks; says ammo limits a longshot

U.S. Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Conn., visits a Head Start classroom at Armstrong Court, a public housing complex in Greenwich, Monday, June 10, 2013.

Consumed by the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre for most of his first six months in the Senate, Democrat Chris Murphy on Monday signaled that he would be willing to consider minor concessions when it comes to universal background checks for firearms purchases if it would help resuscitate federal gun control legislation.

Murphy, who represented Newtown in the House of Representatives when 20 children and six educators were gunned down Dec. 14 with a Bushmaster XM-15 E2S semi-automatic rifle, said lawmakers are trying to find common ground after the Senate rejected a package of reforms in April.

“We’re in active discussions right now with a handful of Republicans and Democrats that voted against the bill earlier this year,” Murphy said. “The question will be, do those swing senators need changes so big that it would that it would render the bill ineffective? So, for instance, I think there’s some interest in creating some more wiggle room on the background checks portion of the bill.”

Murphy was asked about the status of the negotiations by Hearst Connecticut Newspapers while visiting a Head Start facility in Greenwich for under-privileged, many of whom are only a year or two younger than most of the victims of the mass-shooting.

“I’m willing to look at small exemptions for rural areas or for certain types of gun shows, but there’s only so far I’m willing to go,” Murphy said. “And so that we’re having a conversation right now as to what changes need to be made to win five or six more votes and whether those are changes people like me and Senator Blumenthal can swallow.”

A green Newtown wristband visible just beneath his left shirt cuff, Murphy characterized the chances of Congress agreeing to caps on gun magazine capacity as a long-shot.

In April, The Connecticut Legislature banned so-called high-capacity magazines like the ones Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza used in the massacre, setting the limit at 10 rounds of ammunition.

Murphy expects a tough slog ahead for proponents of federal gun control legislation.

“I think we have a chance to revisit the gun bill later this year,” he said. “Negotiations, right now, are a bit of a knife edge in terms whether the compromise necessary to get the bill back to the floor is too big for those of us to swallow that supported the bill.”

The freshman senator from Cheshire affirmed his support for shielding crime scene photos of the shooting victims from the public, saying he lobbied his former colleagues in the General Assembly to support a measure that was overwhelmingly approved last week.

” I think in this grieving process it’s too much to ask those families to have to watch the photos of their loved ones get traded around the Internet,” Murphy said.